Moral Virtue or Mental Health? (San Francisco State University Series in Philosophy) [Hardcover]

Mark Pestana (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Caught between the rock of a rapidly expanding neuroscience and the hard place of traditional notions of responsibility, the human mind is under pressure as never before. This clear and scholarly book draws on a sophisticated understanding of virtue theory to produce a refreshingly novel analysis of the will and mental illness. Mark Pestana is the Alasdair MacIntyre of mental health." KWM Fulford, Professor of Philosophy & Mental Health, University of Warwick and Honorary Consultant psychiatrist, University of Oxford

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820436879
• ISBN-13: 978-0820436876
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,904,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A difficult but helpful book, May 17, 2000

By 

David W. Henry (Fredericksburg, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moral Virtue or Mental Health? (San Francisco State University Series in Philosophy) (Hardcover)

Don't let the size of this book fool you. It may be small but it is extremely heavy. Dr. Pestana leaves no question unexplored as he unpacks the philosophical tension between the categories of moral virtue as opposed to mental health. Dr. Pestana plumbs the depths of each category giving the history of the switch to the prevalent modern preference for the category of mental health. Along the way he makes the arguement that the two categories are not congruent and therefore different. I found this book to be a compelling arguement for the need to retain the concept of moral virtue as a distinct, subjective and useful category in a culture where the objective category of mental health predominates.